Adequate power supply, key to technology development

Recently, I passed through two simple but highly effective and clean international airports, both located in Africa, and this led me to share a post on social media. I ended it with a prayer, which goes thus, ‘May the sleeping giant of Africa truly arise!’

I spent the last few days in and around the city of Dar es Salaam and did not experience a single second of blackout. In fact, I was made to understand that it rarely ever happens. This is indeed a blessing for the residents of that city, especially the entrepreneurs who rely heavily on power.

Honestly, each time I travel, I try to observe other countries and it beats my imagination why certain things seem so complex back at home. Of particular disappointment is the issue of adequate electricity supply; one wonders when we will ever get it right.

There is no doubting the fact that Nigeria needs a well-developed tech ecosystem to help her out of the myriad of problems that tech can effectively solve. One thing that is, however, clear to all is that, for tech to be of any significant use in solving some of our problems in this country, certain other infrastructure have to be effectively made available. These set of infrastructure will assist tech to tackle some of the problems.

This week, I will be looking at one of the basic infrastructure that is required to be on ground and working, for the tech ecosystem to work effectively, and that is power, or electricity, as we usually call it in this clime. It is generally known that, electricity supply in this country has been epileptic for a very long time. Each government that assumes the governance of the country always promises to find a lasting solution to it, but at the end of its tenure in office, no solution is ever found. It got to a point that we all thought no solution was coming, when it comes to the issue of electricity, because government has always been in control of the process – from generation through to transmission and distribution. This made us to split the Power Holding Company of Nigeria and sell in bits to power generation and distribution companies.

Since the commencement of business by these Gencos and Discos, as they are usually referred to, not much improvement has been recorded, in both generation and distribution. The resultant effect of this is that many individual users and businesses, small or large, are forced to resort to the use of alternative power sources, such as the use of generating sets, to meet their power needs. One of the most annoying things is that, in spite of the fact that the Discos have continuously failed to provide adequate electricity supply, they keep sharing estimated bills among the users, which they are expected to pay, whether they like it or not, just like it was, in the days before the privatisation of the sector. This, in effect, puts additional cost burden on the users and this dovetails into passing such costs to the prices of goods and services. Many start-ups are finding it difficult to scale with the situation we find ourselves on electricity. They struggle with having to run on generators, which eats deep into their cost structure.

Electricity provision, across board, should be seen as a necessity, if we must deploy and propel the use of technology to solve our myriad of problems. This is because electricity drives technology. Ever since the industrial revolution, when electricity became the backbone on which mass production was premised, electricity has always been relevant in powering most of the innovations and inventions that have come up till date. The most important today is Internet connectivity. The Internet has turned the world into a global village, and it is powered by electricity. Today, within the twinkle of an eye, you can transact and close business deals with anyone, anywhere in the world, without leaving the comfort of your home through an Internet-connected computer device, powered by electricity. Most villages in the country are yet to be connected with electricity; hence, these places are finding it difficult to be connected to the Internet. Most of the Internet Service Providers are reluctant to move to these areas because it will be a waste of resources to locate their bases in these rural areas; more so, the return on investment will be almost non-existent from those areas.

I have always maintained that technology is here with us to make living a lot easier for us. With stable electricity in the country, unemployment rate can be reduced to the barest minimum. Many people that are unemployed will use the opportunity of the stability in the supply of electricity to key into jobs that are electricity-related, such as welding, hairdressing and barbers shops, cyber cafés, cold room for fish and meat, fashion designing, etc. This is because they will run their businesses smoothly, without interruptions and having to incur extra cost in running generating sets. This will also result to the reduction in the cost of production in many industries, which will also lead to reduction prices of goods and services.

Solving the electricity issue in Nigeria will also lead to a situation where our products can compete favourably for export, especially in the African market, thus, opening a window for our earning serious foreign exchange from exports. It is only when we export that our earnings can improve the strength of the naira against stronger currencies like the dollar and save us from the present foreign exchange imbalance. The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, which is the regulatory body for the power sector in Nigeria, should put the Gencos and Discos on their toes to provide the best of services to electricity consumers in Nigeria.

The issue of irregular billing and provision of prepaid meters for every electricity consumer in Nigeria is also key. By providing the consumers with prepaid meters, the issue of crazy billing will be outdated and consumers will pay for only the electricity they consume. This is the fair thing to do. The government should compel the Discos to provide prepaid meters for the consumers with a timeline and punishment for non-compliance.

The possibilities of opening new frontiers on alternative sources of electricity should also be looked into by the government and encourage as many players as possible to operate in that field. Technology has provided various other options, such as wind, solar and many more, which we can apply in areas where we find them suitable to develop and use.

There is the need for the government to look in this direction and improve electricity supply to the populace at affordable rates with prepaid meters for fairness. This will help us in improving the tech ecosystem.

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